what are the top 3 things that you think the government should be tackling?

[MentholLoad]

after reading various headlines related to the Tory Party Conference and also not related to the conference, I am interested to hear what people think the priorities should be for the government?

because to me they are just mincing around the edges, HS2, smoking bans, so much emphasis on stopping immigrants, post 16 qualifications....huh?

for me, these are the 3 top priorities (subject to change, as I read other people's!)

1. the NHS
2. social housing (need more) and rental properties (the STATE that landlords are providing and controlling the cost
3. poverty....cost of living/wages
4. the environment....water pollution (water companies discharging sewage to rivers etc) and air pollution

The economy, housing, crime.🙂

Agree with this. There are a lot of older women who have never paid much in and are topped up with pension credit. Then there are those pensioners who do have full state pension but then get £100 a week Attendance Allowance and this increases their applicable allowance for pension credit and they get £75 odd a week pension credit on top of their state pension if living alone. I work in benefits for older people and we also have a significant number of pensioners who return form living abroad for years on end and have not paid into Uk state pension and they can come back and claim pension credit ( many have no pension from working abroad ! ). Then anyone getting even a pound a week of pension credit is entitled to all council tax and rent paid. It is madness. the bill must be enormous. Not sure what the answer is as obviously they need to be looked after.

I also think there’s a tendency with threads like these, to forget that many people on benefits have been tax payers and have themselves contributed to the benefits system now supporting them - that’s what it’s designed for.

It's bizarre & it's interesting that the narrative is always pensioners have paid in etc when many tax payers who may end up on benefits will likely have paid taxes themselves. Also todays "feckless" job shy young person can easily grow into a feckless old person.

And by the time that money was paid back most of those houses were sold off to people for a pittance, many now in the hands of private landlords charging extortionate rates. Shocking mismanagement by successive governments.

These are ridiculous and lazy suggestions and I'm so very tired of posters spouting that all the money we could ever need could be raised without impacting 90% of the population.

We are not in a position to randomly start printing as much money as we like. Sure, we have tried a bit of quantitative easing but the international markets would rapidly lose any confidence in our currency if we just printed tonnes of money, not to mention hyper inflation would start kicking in.

Taxing the 'too 10%' is tricky. For starters, do you mean the top 10% of earners? If so, that's basically anyone earning over £60k. Many of these people aren't 'very rich' at all and could very well be struggling themselves if they are single parents supporting an entire family on this salary or live in London and the South East where cost of living is so high. How much realistically do you think many of these people can afford to pay? Also, most people I know do these difficult, stressful roles because they are financially recompensed for doing so (despite losing Child Benefit and paying 40% tax on a good chunk of their earnings). Do you think people would just volunteer to do these roles out if the goodness of their hearts whilst getting taxed into oblivion or do you think they would look for an opportunity to reduce hours and responsibility?

If you mean the 10% with the most wealth then this is all kinds of complex. Money is tied up in housing in expensive areas often owned by older people that aren't cash rich. You would essentially be forcing them to sell up to find any wealth taxes and forcing them out of their local area where their support network is. The majority of the super wealthy will simply leave the country as why on earth would you choose to stay?

Don't get me wrong, taxation of corporations and the very rich could raise some additional money but it is not the money tree that some would like us to believe. We need to look at growth and how we can grow the pie as opposed to focussing only on redistributing an ever shrinking pie. We need to encourage entrepreneurship, and innovation. For this to happen we need people to take risks and to work hard and they will only be willing to do so if they feel there is something in it for them.

I don't disagree, but the person commented that if we could do it then, we can do it now. This would only be possible by borrowing vast amounts again.

we are in the top 10% of households- combined £120k. It is an above average but decidedly middling (or even slightly worse off) household income in London.

The problem is that while £160k might be a top 1% income in UK, it doesn't even get you in the top 5% in London. Even top 10% in london is something like £120k (individually). And these are just wage income earners, people like rishi don't earn their income through wages, they have wealth and get paid dividends. The question we should ask ourselves is that why London has so many high income earners compared to the rest of the country, its not the only big city. You shouldn't need to work in finance or tech to earn a high salary, its certainly not like that in other countries.

I don't disagree that we should pay our fair share of tax but only because we have slightly more than everyone else, not that wearerich.

Spot on. I don't think most people realise how little money is raised by the amount they are so indignant about paying. 90% of revenue generated by income tax comes from 1% of earners, so anyone earning less than 250k is only contributing to 10% of income tax revenue.

Successive governments have always been wary of increasing tax for high earners as they know those earners could leave the UK very easily, and take their money with them. That would leave a bigger hole than any potential additional revenue.

Taxation is a delicate balancing act. The other part of the equation is whether you trust the government to administer it properly, and my answer to that I absolutely not. I don't think the money they do receive is properly spent or accounted for, and until it is, increasing tax is futile.

they have increased tax by freezing the thresholds. What £50k meant for your lifestyle 10 years ago is very different to now....

nhs and social care (all interlinked)
poverty/ homelessness
Children - so focusing on better outcomes for the next generation (schools, crime, safety, safeguarding, mental health care)

I agree completely.

Those who get indignant about 'paying in' to the system and therefore being entitled to benefits, the State pension, expensive NHS treatment etc also seem to conveniently forget that it is only the top 40% of earners in the UK that are actually net contributors to the system and pay in more than they take out. The majority of people are already being financially supported by this 40% and yet still, the answer to raising further taxation seems to always be to tax the 40% more and more. The sense of entitlement is crazy.

we are in the top 10% of households- combined £120k. It is an above average but decidedly middling (or even slightly worse off) household income in London.

That just isn't true, though, is it @lavender2023? What is the median household income in London these days? I'm willing to bet that it is nowhere near £120k, so while you might feel that you're "middling" because of your social circle, that really isn't the case.

I'm a bit confused by your post in any case, because you seem to acknowledge that your income is above average, even for London, but you then seem to suggest that you might be "slightly worse off" than middling. I'm not sure how you think both can apply.

These are ridiculous and lazy suggestions and I'm so very tired of posters spouting that all the money we could ever need could be raised without impacting 90% of the population.

Exactly, everyone is going to have to pay

I don't disagree. But people paying tax on income of 50k barely features in government thinking as they are in the bracket of earners who contribute to only 10% of the revenue generated by income tax.

The UK are 23rd out of 38 countries in Europe for income tax level, so not low, and not high. There is definitely scope for small increases, but a blanket "tax rich people more" is not the answer either.

Decrease in the standard of living is not only the last 10 years either. My grandparents were able to buy their house on just my grandfather's wage. Both my parents had to work to enable some of the nice things (holidays etc), but these days both partners need to work just to pay rent or a mortgage, so it is getting worse over successive generations.

You dont think benefit fraud is a main problem?!!! Is that because maybe you are doing this? I see people stealing hard working peoples taxes as a massive problem! Wages should be increased to encourage people to work! Why the hell should we increase benefits so people can stay at home!

Childcare
Getting more people into work and not subsidizing people to work part time
brexit

I agree and never believe when I see people quoting such low statistics for benefit fraud. I work in benefits ( for over 50's ) and have a steady stream of people asking how they can hide capital, can they transfer property into kids names etc to avoid care home fees, can they buy their grandkids cars to get rid of money to be able to claim benefits. Also see many in mid- late fifties who have all but given up on finding alternative work when a job comes to an end ( I appreciate it can be hard ). Many many older women who have never really gone back to work for anything more than very part time after having kids and are then totally stuffed if they lose their partners through death or divorce. Had a case recently where someone has sold a second property and given 50k away to their son to buy a property, paid thousands to pay off son's debts and then come to us asking what benefits they could claim ! Not sure what planet some people live on really ?

Also there's huge inequality between wealth & income a lot driven by escalating house prices.

could we just stop being wankers to each other

why would you suggest another poster is a benefit fraud, because you disagree with their opinion. can we just stop thinking other people are stupid, because they have different ideas

Even taxing corporations isn’t an easy win. Countries have benefited from being attractive. Lucky them.

Social care. Social care. Social care. It props up the nhs plus wider sections of society yet it's funding has been consistently eroded or ignored and it's workforce underpaid and derided.

NHS, specifically GP's as a starter. I just want to be able to ring the dr, not be on hold for 40 mins only to be told the next appointment is in a month.

Public transport. Make it work. Make it affordable. Make it cover more areas. People would then be less reliant on cars, helping the environment, the state of the roads, and over crowding in city centres as people could reliably commute and spread out a bit, thus stimulating semi rural economies. (Not bloody HS2 tho.
Actual branch lines and better buses would be a start).

Education
NHS

Schools are in a terrible state and the hospitals are worse.

Tackle government corruption and mismanagement of public funds . Track and trace cost us £34bn. I am no conspiracy theorist but find it very hard to believe no one had their hand in the till.

The NHS- needs serious reform and I'd start with setting up a cross party working group to brainstorm ideas and get expert views

Social housing. We have plenty of housing already in the country, fun though it is for our mighty overlords to get donations from development companies in exchange for letting them plonk boxes all over the countryside. Problem is the housing stock we have is not affordable. So we need to replenish the social housing stock that Thatcher sold off (and at the same time perhaps they could do something about the number of properties of all types left standing empty. Homes are for living in!)

Only three things? There was another thread like this and I struggled to stick to ten.

I would say from my current perspective and stage in life:

Healthcare needs to be number one, but a wider acceptance that we have to pay higher taxes for decent public services as long as the government doesn't waste money (Covid PPE, HS2 as two examples).

Noise and air pollution need to be sorted out.

Much stronger laws on dog ownership.

1. NHS, 2. Social housing and rental support, 3. Cost of living/support for those living in poverty